Edward Stephens, with brothers Samuel and John, strong Methodist influences on South Australia early years

Edward Stephens (left), with brothers John (right) and Samuel (inset), brought their strong Methodist family background, with a radical streak, to the early European settlement of the South Australia province. 
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia

Edward Stephens, one of three brothers (with Samuel and John) prominent in South Australian European settlement and helping pioneer its 19th Century Methodism, were sons of a British Wesleyan Methodist Conference president and from a family of radical dissent. Another brother Joseph became a Wesleyan minister but was suspended in England after being arrested in 1838 for disturbing the peace as a Chartist and sentenced to18 months in prison.

Samuel was the first of the Stephens brothers to arrive in South Australia, as colonial manager for the South Australian Company – on the company’s Duke of York – in 1836 at Kangaroo Island. He performed South Australia’s first Methodist service on the island.

John Stephens, before he arrived in South Australia in 1843, helped found the Christian Advocate as a Methodist journal in England in 1823. It became the organ of the anti-slavery party and John Stephens lost his job when his editorials attacked conservative Wesleyans. In South Australia, he began the Adelaide Observer and soon after bought the South Australian Register that he used to crusade against injustice.

Edward Stephens made the biggest impact on South Australia and setting up its early Methodism. Edward Stephens was a clerk and assistant cashier in the Hull Banking Co. in England from 1833-36 when appointed cashier and accountant of the South Australian Company. He sailed for South Australia with wife Emma in the Coromandel and arrived in 1837 at Holdfast Bay where he set up his office in a tent. In that tent, as a zealous Wesleyan, he led the first Methodist service on the South Australian mainland on January 22, 1837, with John White. In May that year, a Wesleyan Methodist Society was formed, with meetings in Stephens’ home on North Terrace, Adelaide city.

Edward Stephens was largely responsible for building the first two Methodist chapels (one in Hindley Street in 1838) in Adelaide and providing them with ministers. The first minister, William Longbottom, arrived in Adelaide in 1838, having been shipwrecked sailing from Hobart to Perth. Edward Stephens also became chairman of South Australia’s League for the Preservation of Religious Freedom, a testing position in 1846 when state aid to churches was introduced. Wesleyans accepting that aid shocked Stephens so much that he withdrew and formed the short-lived Representative Methodist Church.

In South Australia’s early days, Edward Stephens took sides against first governor John Hindmarsh by favouring the Adelaide city site chosen by colonel William Light. He became friendly with Light and bought eight city acres at auction. Stephens was rebuked by South Australian Company chairman George Fife Angas for dabbling in politics and he became more judicious under company manager David McLaren and was appointed a justice of the peace.

In 1840, when the company's business was divided, Stephens became Adelaide manager of South Australian Banking Co. He steered it “tactfully and forcefully” through the depression but lost the government account by refusing to comply with later governor George Grey’s demands. When mineral ores were found in South Australia, Stephens was quick to send to England samples of silver/lead and copper for testing, and he was one of the first to visit the Burra copper deposits. His own Burra investment was small but the bank profited from him energetically promoting it. In 1849, the South Australian Banking Co. made a £15,000 profit and declared a 6% dividend on its £180,000 paid-up capital.

After a visit to England, Stephens was a conservative candidate for West Adelaide in the Legislative Council 1853 election. Although defeated, he was given a seat as a government nominee. In 1855, he toured the eastern Australia colonies of and returned to London. There he continued to serve South Australia on committees for conferences, reunions and exhibitions.